


Memories

by whendocloudssleep



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Childhood Sweethearts, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-01-20
Packaged: 2017-11-26 04:05:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/646363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whendocloudssleep/pseuds/whendocloudssleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rory is wandering the TARDIS. He can’t sleep and this has become a bit of a ritual these last few weeks. He’ll wait until Amy’s asleep before getting out of bed to try and find a new room, a place he hasn’t seen yet. So far his quest hasn’t failed him. He sometimes wonders if the TARDIS is helping him to new places, planting the idea of where to go into his head. If it is he doesn’t really mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories

Rory is wandering the TARDIS. He can’t sleep and this has become a bit of a ritual these last few weeks. He’ll wait until Amy’s asleep before getting out of bed to try and find a new room, a place he hasn’t seen yet. So far his quest hasn’t failed him. He sometimes wonders if the TARDIS is helping him to new places, planting the idea of where to go into his head. If it is he doesn’t really mind.

He’s just come out of a room where everything was an almost terrifying shade of purple. Shaking his head, he makes sure to remember where it is so he can either stay away, or tell Amy. She’d be thrilled.

He’s about to open the door to another room when he hears an almost familiar laugh. Turning around he sees a flash of yellow before it disappears around a corner. Rory’s face crinkles up and he wonders whether River is on the TARDIS and if she is, why didn’t the Doctor tell them?

Shaking his head, he walks around the corner to talk to her. He’s not sure how he feels about River. He thinks it’s hard to form an opinion of someone when you don’t know who they are, but when he makes it around the corner he doesn’t see River. He doesn’t see anyone. He hears a laugh again, and wonders why he’s being taunted. It’s not his fault he can’t sleep.

“You stand outside a box for 2,000 years.” It’s not until a minute later that he realizes he spoke out loud. “I really have lost it.”

He follows the sound of the laughter down another hallway, only to find it empty as well. He hears the laugh again and wonders if he’s really asleep. If his mind is wandering the TARDIS, and trying to sort out the mess of a place his brain has become.

He’s going after the sound again, running this time. He’s determined to find the laughing woman, although he’s not quite sure why. He doesn’t want to see River that badly, and he doesn’t know anyone else that’s blonde and would be on the TARDIS.

The laugh rings louder in his ears, and he stops running. He knows that laugh, knows why it sounds familiar. He heard that laugh constantly for two weeks, every summer. It’s the laugh of his first love. That kind of love that only feels powerful while it’s happening, during those two weeks every summer, and over Christmas break. Looking back he knows that it wasn’t love, and that he loves his wife but it doesn’t help that he missed Rose when she stopped visiting.

He sees her smile in his head, and knows that he has to be asleep. He’s remembering a simpler time when all he had to worry about was their plans for the day, and what movies they’d watch.

He follows the laughter with a newfound sense of perseverance. He wants to know why his mind is remembering things from years ago. He wants to know why it had to bring up Rose Tyler, why it couldn’t have just used Amy instead of his dead friend. He still thinks of her as a friend, years since they had spoken or not.

The sound leads him to a bedroom. It’s pink and smells exactly like she used to. There’s clothes everywhere, and make-up on the vanity. On the wall next to the bed there’s a giant wall collage filled with photos.

Looking closer he sees people he recognizes. There’s Mickey Smith and Jackie. (Rose had stayed an extra week at her grandparent’s the year Mickey’s grandmother had died. Mickey had needed to get away from London.) There’s Shareen, who had stayed with the Tyler’s for a couple of days before going on holiday with her own family.

And then there are photos with people he doesn’t recognize. There’s one with Rose shining between two men, one that looks old enough to be her father, and another that Rory, even as a straight man, has to admit is quite attractive. Next she’s leaning on a man with spiked up hair, asleep. Neither of them notices the camera, and if the picture weren’t set in the TARDIS he’d think that Jackie got better at sneaking around.

Rory smiles as he looks at them. He’d overheard his mother, and Rose’s grandmother speaking a few times about Rose being too good for “that Rock fellow”, and that she was better off before the two had met.

Of course, by the time he realized they were talking about Rose, Amy was at the door or he was running late to meet her. The most recent times Rose had come up had been different, tinged with sadness as much as worry about her safety.

First they’d been worried that she’d been taken, killed, and was decomposing in some field where they’d never find her. Of course a year later, they all found out that she was alive, and healthy, but had been traveling and couldn’t call. (Rory had only found out during his weekly phone call with his mother when she casually mentioned it as though saying that his father had gotten his hair trimmed, or that she’d gotten a new pair of glasses. He’d been relieved and wondered why she hadn’t mentioned it sooner.)

Then it had been when she’d died. Even the Tyler’s hadn’t gotten many details, or a body but there had been a memorial service set up by some of Jackie and Rose’s friends. Rory had taken a small holiday and gone to London to pay his last respects. He didn’t stay long knowing that Amy wouldn’t want to be surrounded by grieving people for any period of time. He’d been surprised that Shareen had recognized him, having only spent a couple of days around him, years before.

“I thought she was traveling?” He’d asked. That was what his mother had always told him, and there really wasn’t any reason for her to lie.

“She was just visiting her mum when it happened. Both of them, dead at Canary Wharf.” And a fresh wave of tears burst from the girls face. She keeps talking, and he’s not sure how he understands but he does. “I didn’t get to see her that often, and never without that new boyfriend of hers, but she was still one of my best friends.”

He wraps an arm around her shoulders and tries to console her. A moment later, she pulls away, and wipes under her eyes, making sure not to smear her waterproof mascara. “She talked about you, you know. Before and after Jimmy; made me wonder how good her memory actually was.”

After that, a slightly jealous Amy had walked over and they had left. He’d been in a bit of an odd mood the rest of the day, but Amy was too busy sightseeing to realize.

Shaking his head, he remembers that he’s in the TARDIS, most likely asleep, and dreaming about Rose Tyler.

Looking at the wall, the last two photos catch his eye. They’re of Rose and an extraordinarily familiar face; his own. Granted the face has changed a bit since the photos were taken, but he still knows his face when he sees a photo of it.

He’s remembering when the picture was taken when a laugh startles him. He spins around and almost topples onto the bed. Rory is no longer alone in the room. Rose and one of the men from the pictures are there.

Rose is grinning like the cat that ate the canary. She’s standing on the side of the bed farther from the door, close to Rory, while the spiky-haired man is opposite her.

“How’re you gonna get me now, Doctor? Bed’s in the way.” Rose’s voice has a bit of an echo now, something had Rory hadn’t heard with her laugh.

“Just watch me.” The man, The Doctor, Rory corrects himself, says before climbing over the bed.

Rose laughs, and squeals a bit before running towards the door, and out into the hallway, The Doctor close behind her.

As he stands there, Rory isn’t sure if he’s asleep anymore. The Rose he’d seen a second ago was older than he remembered, with shorter hair. Her smile was the same though, so at least there was that. She’d called the man the Doctor though. The Doctor he knew had floppy hair, and wore a bow tie.

“That’s it.” And he’s running. Out of Rose’s room and down the hall, trying to find his way towards the console room. That’s where he’s most likely to find the Doctor, and if it’s not where he’s at then maybe the TARDIS will help him find the alien.

A few minutes later, after running into the purple room again, he finally makes it into the cavernous room. Rushing down the stairs, he quickly finds himself standing next to the Doctor, who is messing with something under the console. He just stands there for a moment, loudly catching his breath.

“Doctor-.”

“Was there a-.”

“Did you know a-”?

“Is there a point to any of this Rory?” The Doctor asks, finally looking out from underneath of the console. Rory wonders why he didn’t think of what he was going to say while he was running.

“Yes.”

“Well, what is it?” The Doctor sounds irritated, and Rory decides to throw any thought of being civil out the window.

“Did you know Rose Tyler?”

The Doctor jerks and hits his head on the console, before hitting it on the glass floor as well. He doesn’t say anything. He just stands up and rubs at the back of his head.

“Well, did you?” Rory asks, not bothering to be patient. He’s confused, and there’s still too many thoughts running through his head.

“Yes! Yes, I knew her.” The Doctor is loud at first before his voice quiets. There’s a pained look on his face, and Rory knows that if Amy were here, she would be pushing forwards like a freight train, trying to get the Doctor to spill something else about his past.

Before Rory can say anything though, the Doctor is speaking again, imposing, making sure that he’s the one in charge.

“Did you know Rose Tyler?” The Doctor is standing close to Rory, the look on his face somewhere between frightened and frightening. It makes Rory wonder what Rose Tyler did to make him look like that.

“Yeah. I did, a long time ago.” He thinks for a moment about telling the Doctor that they had been childhood sweethearts before deciding that some things are better kept to yourself.

“Oh, well. That’s nice.” The Doctor’s face relaxes a bit, developing a sadder look. He flattens Rory’s t-shirt, before stepping away. “Weren’t you going to sleep? Never mind. What makes you ask about Rose?”

Rory ignores the sadness, and Is that regret?, in the Doctor’s voice when he answers. “I was walking around, I couldn’t sleep, when I heard a laugh. And I followed the sound to a room, a room I’m pretty sure belonged to Rose. There were a bunch of photos on the wall, but then I heard something behind me.

“When I turned around Rose was there, with a man who she called the Doctor but he didn’t look anything like you. They were running, and he was trying to catch her. After that they ran out of the room, and then I ran here.”

“Oh, emotional imprint. It’s why houses have ghosts. I thought the TARDIS kept that from happening here. Most of the time.” The Doctor turns away, and hits, what appear to Rory as, random buttons.

“What does that mean exactly?”

The Doctor turns to face Rory. “Sometimes when a person feels a strong emotion it can leave behind traces, that can be sensed, felt and occasionally seen by other people. Since you can remember waiting for Amy, it was easier for the imprint to access your brain. Your telepathic security is a little lacking.”

It takes a moment for this to set in, and once it does Rory lets himself relax. Sitting on one the chairs around the console, he closes his eyes. “Were you with her when she died?”

“She didn’t die. She’s still alive.”

And Rory’s eyes are open and he’s standing again. “What? What do you mean she’s still alive? She died at Canary Wharf.”

“Relax. Legally, yes she did. But in reality she got trapped in an alternate universe. She spent quite some time traveling through different universes to find me, so I could stop the stars from going out. I had to leave her again though.” There’s something the Doctor’s leaving out, but Rory decides not to push it.

“Did she end up doing something good? She always wanted to make a difference.” Rory wants to know about the person Rose became, not just who she was when she was younger.

“Rose Tyler. Defender of the Earth. She did so many amazing things. She’s The Stuff of Legend. I’m not really sure what she’s doing now. She’s probably out there somewhere being brilliant.” There’s a look of pride on the Doctor’s face, though it doesn’t completely hide the pain that’s there. “What was she like when you knew her, Rory?”

“She was amazing.” And with that Rory can’t stop. In the back of his mind, he vaguely knows that he sounds like a lovesick teenager. He’s talking about her, telling stories and remembering things that he’d forgotten about for years. Telling the Doctor about the time that Rose had talked him into sneaking out of his house to walk around the neighborhood in the middle of the night. They had watched the sunrise, and fallen asleep in front of his television after breakfast.

He wonders how the Doctor can move on and leave memories and people behind. Maybe it’s different when it’s reminiscing for 900 years, because Rory knows there are memories he will always want to reminisce about. Memories about when things were easier, happier.

Memories of his first kiss, it had tasted like strawberries, and champagne. They were at his cousins wedding reception. He was in a suit, and her in a dress. It was almost like those pictures you see of little kids kissing, only they were fifteen instead of five. That summer Rose had stayed in Leadworth a little longer. It was the summer before her last summer visiting.

Memories of falling asleep at the park, because they’d fled a party and hadn’t wanted to go home. Memories of running through the sprinkler, in her grandparents front yard before getting tired and lying under the water and eating their Popsicles. Memories of playing on the swings, trying to see who could go higher before jumping into the open air, with a feeling of flying.

He doesn’t share all of his memories, leaving out the more private, intimate ones but what he does share makes the Doctor smile, even once or twice triggering a laugh.

When Rory is finished story-telling, he yawns ready to head off to sleep.

The Doctor looks intrigued, and interested as he says, “ I guess I didn’t really know that much about you.”

“I guess not.”

Rory’s walking up the stairs, towards the room where his wife is asleep when the Doctor says, “Goodnight, Rory Williams. I look forward to hearing more about your past.”

Rory looks back and says, “Only if you’ll share some of yours.”


End file.
